How to Chair the Perfect Meeting

How to Chair the Perfect Meeting
When hosting a meeting at work, there are many ways to
ensure that the meeting is smooth, professional and you
get the required outputs. If you have an administrative
assistant or co-worker who is available to help prepare
materials, reserve meeting space and handle other details,
make sure you use them as much as possible. Having another
person to rely on can make the meeting much more enjoyable
and manageable for you and the other people attending.

Preparing for a Meeting

Know how many people you want to attend the meeting and
make sure everyone you want to attend receives an
invitation. Ensure they respond to the invitation
regardless of whether they can attend or not. This will
make it easier when preparing documentation and other
materials. Once you've determined how many people will be
attending the meeting, preparing all materials including
hand-outs, power point presentations, a meeting itinerary
and other materials at least a week or two in advance will
give you enough time to make changes or corrections. Having
help at this stage can make this process much smoother. If
you need to send materials to those attending, do so as
soon as you have them done. Create extra copies in case
people forget to bring them to the meeting.

Starting the Meeting

Before the meeting starts, make sure you introduce
yourself. This can make people feel more comfortable and
relaxed. In order to chair a successful meeting, make sure
all audio/visual equipment is working before the meeting
starts. This will prevent the meeting from starting and
ending later than it should. Open the meeting by explaining
why it's necessary to meet and what you hope to accomplish
by the end. Ask that everyone introduce each other. If
you're following a specific itinerary, begin talking about
the first topic. After a few minutes, people will begin
asking questions and offering their opinions. While this is
what you want during a meeting, you will need to ensure
that everyone stays on track so all topics are covered in
the time allotted.

Keeping the Meeting on Schedule

If you feel a discussion has gone on long enough, ask that
everyone move on to the next topic. You can always return
to the topic if there's time after the other topics have
been discussed. Most people will agree and will move on. If
someone in the meeting refuses to move on to the next
topic, you may need to let them know that they are free to
discuss it later. Your role as the chair of the meeting is
to make sure that the meeting is productive, enlightening
and informative to all who attend. If there is a need to
return to a topic that was discussed earlier, use your best
judgment and return to an earlier discussion when
necessary. Closing a Meeting Once you've gone over all the
topics on the itinerary, you should close the meeting by
summing up what was learned. Allow those in the meeting to
provide any final remarks and then end the meeting. While
chairing a meeting can be stressful, if you are able to
maintain control over the discussion topics and the length
of time people spend talking about them, you can accomplish
everything on your agenda in one meeting.

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Sharon Alexander is the author of the ebook Claim that
Job.com - The Ultimate Job-Hunting and Career Management
Guide that teaches the skills and techniques to succeed in
a competitive job-market and in the work place. Launches on
5 February 2008. Click here to subscribe to our mailing
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